Talent
by Nairobi-Harper
Summary: Once she realizes that everyone has talents, Rosie begins to wonder what hers is.


Author's Note: Hey, guys! I haven't been on in a while, but I'm back with one of my first new stories. I hope to upload another in about an hour.

I was motivated to write this one-shot after reading "Rosie's Career Choice," a story that I loved, by celrock. I don't write my own OC's much, as I personally don't feel that I do all that well when I write them, but I decided to give it a shot.

In this story, Rosie doesn't feel that she's good at anything, though quickly discovers that she is talented at something: writing.

Disclaimer: There are no Rugrats characters mentioned in this story, though just to be safe, Rugrats is owned by Klasky Csupo. I own Rosie and her family, while Hazel belongs to Hazelnut Swirl. Aaron belongs to Holiday Sean.

 **Talent**

 **Chapter One: Hazel Comes Over**

As the rain fell outside of Boston, five-year old Rosie Hall hopped around her room excitedly as her mother spoke on the phone to her best friend, Hazel's mother.

"This is the best day of my life!" Rosie shouted. "Not only is Hazel coming over, but I'm also gonna start kindergarten in five days! _Five days_!"

"Rosie, could you keep it down?" Her sister, Mary, requested from the other room. "I'm practicing piano. You know that I have my recital in two weeks. My piano teacher really wants for me to have memorized all the notes by the time that we perform."

Sighing, Rosie allowed herself to hop on her bed once more as she landed on it dramatically.

"Could I ever do anything in this place?" Rosie grumbled. "I can't even be excited about a friend coming over anymore."

Ever since Mary, her ten-year old sister, had begun attending piano classes, Rosie had had to quiet down daily so that Mary could practice. She didn't mean to be a disturbance, though it was difficult to keep her energy in control as a five-year old. Kicking her soccer ball, she groaned once again.

"I mean, I can't even watch TV around here because Mary thinks that's too loud, too."

"You can't talk to yourself, either," Mary insisted. "I need all the concertation that I can get."

Rosie rolled her eyes.

'With all the quiet that Mary needs, she might as well be a grumpy old lady,' Rosie thought.

"Rosie, Hazel's here!" Shannon, her mother, shouted.

"Woo hoo!" Rosie exclaimed.

Barely even a second later, she could hear Mary growl loudly from the other room.

"What is it with the noise today?" Mary asked. "If I'm ever going to learn how to play the piano, it can't be a pigpen around here!"

Having had enough, Rosie walked over to the room that Mary was in, and replied.

"Well, you're wrong. I'm sure that Moe Art or whatever his name was had to learn how to play the piano with distractions, too, y'know."

Seeing Rosie scorning at her, Mary only continued, still furious.

"You wouldn't know, Rosie! You're not doing anything as important as this! You don't even _know_ how to do this! You don't know how to do anything important because you're just a five year old!"

These words were very painful, though wanting to feel and seem more like an adult; Rosie puffed in her chest and pretended that they weren't.

"Well, Mary, I ought to" –

"Girls, enough arguing!" Shannon interrupted. "Hazel is here. Rosie, please keep it down while Mary tries to practice, and Mary, don't yell at Rosie. You know that you were jumpy when you were her age, too, so don't be unfair about it."

Usually, Rosie would've thought of this as winning the argument, though, for the first time, she realized that this was her mother's way of saying that Mary should be more mature because she was older.

'Does mama think that Mary's smarter because she's older?' Rosie wondered. 'Does she think that I don't know how to do anything important cuz I'm five? _Can_ I do anything important cuz I'm five?'

"Rosie, come on, you can't keep Hazel waiting."

Feeling a bit hurt, Rosie walked out of the room and over to Hazel. She could see that both Hazel and her mother were in good moods, as Hazel had apparently gotten a new toy, judging by what was in her hands, and Hazel's mother was smiling wider than Rosie ever would've been able to on a day like this.

"Hi, Hazel," Rosie said.

"Hey, Rosie," Hazel said with a smile. "My mommy got me this really cool new set while we were at the store earlier today. Wanna check it out?"

Feeling a bit better, Rosie brightened up a bit. She'd always liked toys, especially whenever Hazel's mother bought them. As Hazel herself had once stated, Mrs. Levine had "excellent taste in toys."

They walked into Rosie's room together where Hazel set down the large, light blue, box.

"So, what kind of doll did you get?" Rosie asked. "Was it that new one that the TV commercials are always showing? The Dolly in My Pocket one?"

"Actually, Rosie, it's not a doll at all," Hazel told her.

Rosie's face dropped. She'd only gotten dolls, toy cars, and toy dinosaurs for all of her life, so she was confused as to what else it could've been.

"Was it pretty clothing for a doll then?" She asked. "A toy dinosaur or one of those cool remote controlled cars, maybe?"

Hazel smiled.

"I have to admit that that'd be pretty cool, but that's not it, either," she replied.

"What is it then?" Rosie asked.

Just as she asked this, Hazel finished opening the box. Much to Rosie's chagrin, it was a science kit.

"What's that?"

Clearly pleased, Hazel responded.

"It's a science kit. My mommy noticed that I've been getting pretty good at it lately since I've started watching shows about science on TV, and decided to buy me it when we saw it at the store today."

Rosie blinked twice.

"Oh."

Knowing what her best friend was going to ask next, Hazel explained to her what the purpose of the science kit was.

"With this science kit, I'm gonna be able to experiment at home with the help of my mommy and daddy. Pretty cool, isn't it?"

Truthfully feeling a bit jealous that Hazel clearly had a talent of her own, Rosie nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so," Rosie said. "So, anyway, last night my mommy and daddy were watching this weird movie where a cowboy and a maid fell in love, and it gave me this really cool idea for something that we could play today. They didn't really like the movie all that much, and it had a bunch of icky romance in it, but I think that if we both put our minds to it, we could turn an icky romance movie into a super cool action thing, don't ya think?"

"Actually, Rosie, I kind of wanted us to play with my new science kit," Hazel stated. "That's kinda why I brought it over."

Rosie scoffed.

"Hazel, that's boring," She insisted. "It'd be a lot more fun to remake some scenes from that movie with our toys."

Rosie could see that Hazel thought that what she'd said was distasteful, though tried not to think much about it.

"Well, Rosie, I could say the exact same about remaking scenes from movies with toys," Hazel said. "We've been doing that forever, and I think that we should have a more open mind about what we do than just doing the exact same thing all the time just because you say so. We always do what you want to do, even when _I_ don't want to do it sometimes."

Rosie was beginning to feel a bit attacked, though managed to hide this by attempting to use an excuse as her defense.

"I do not," Rosie insisted. "If you ever felt like that, then you should've said something, but you didn't, so that was all your fault, Hazel."

"Some supportive friend that you are, Rosie," Hazel grumbled. "You know, I don't want to argue all day, and I actually want to have fun doing science, so as long as I have to stay here, we might as well just play with different things. Here's the deal: I have fun doing some cool science and you go do the same old boring thing that you apparently like to do all the time."

Hazel held out her hand for Rosie to shake. The girl in question gave her a dirty look, though not before shaking her hand.

While Hazel did indeed take out her science set and begin to line things up to start her experiments, Rosie simply sat on the other side of the room and stared at the wall, thinking about life.

'Gee, turns out that smartness doesn't even come with age, either,' Rosie thought. 'Apparently everyone is just better at something than I am. Even Hazel is better at science than me.'

Rosie had to admit that science had never been her golden subject, as she often couldn't understand Mary's science projects even after she attempted to explain them to her.

'I mean, sure, Mary was bound to be better at something than me, but she's ten years old, so that makes a lot of sense,' Rosie thought. 'Am I ever gonna be as good at anything as Mary and Hazel are? Do I even have any talents, or am I just a waste in the world?'

Hazel continued to have fun with science while Rosie stared at the wall for about another twenty minutes before Shannon and Mrs. Levine walked into the room. Seeing what was going on, Mrs. Levine whispered in Shannon's ear.

"Shannon, what's going on with our girls?" She whispered. "Why aren't they playing with each other? Hazel and Rosie always love to play together."

Noticing the two adults in the room, Hazel looked up at her mother and smiled.

"Mommy, I think I'm ready to go," Hazel told her mother.

"Oh, well, already, sweetie?" Mrs. Levine asked.

Seeing that her mother was attempting to receive an answer, Hazel nodded.

"Yeah," She stated quietly.

"Well… alright then, Hazel," Her mother said. "We'll be seeing you guys later, Shannon, Rosie."

Shannon smiled back at them.

"Oh, Rosie, don't you want to say goodbye to Hazel and her mommy?" Shannon asked, attempting to start a conversation between Hazel and Rosie.

"Bye," Rosie mumbled, continuing to stare at the wall.

Though she was confused as to why Rosie was distant, Shannon herself still attempted to make sure that Hazel and her mother left in a good mood.

"I don't know what's going on with Rosie, but, goodbye, you two, and I hope that you have a good day," Shannon told them. "Here, let me walk you to the door."

As Shannon walked Hazel and Mrs. Levine over to the door, Rosie continued to stare at the wall, expressionless.

'Am I worth anything?' She thought. 'Who knows. Maybe I'm just a lost cause in the world.'

A few minutes later, Shannon walked into the room and sat down next to Rosie.

"Sweetie, what's the matter?" Shannon asked. "You didn't seem to want to play with Hazel during your play date. Are you okay?"

Of course, Rosie knew that she certainly wasn't okay, though decided to lie for Shannon's shake.

"Yes," Rosie whispered. "Hazel and I just wanted to… play different games today."

Smiling softly, Shannon pulled Rosie in for a hug.

"Alright, dear, but just know that if you need something, you can always tell me," Shannon assured her.

"I will, mama," Rosie replied.

That was the biggest lie that Rosie had told that day.


End file.
